Loved ones lay to rest Pearl Harbor survivor

Jan. 29, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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The casket of William Crawmer is carried out of the Saddleback Chapel by family and friends as Shannon Pearson of Long Beach and a member of the Patriot Guard, left, holds one of the flags along the walkway to the hearse. Crawmer was a WWII and Korean War veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor. He was buried at the Riverside National Cemetary. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Bill Crawmer joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1939 and was stationed in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese in 1941. The Santa Ana resident died Jan. 17 at the age of 93. Courtesy of Bob Mellema

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Members of the Patriot Guard escort the hearse of William Crawmer in the missing man formation to Riverside National Cemetery. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Family and friends gather around the flag-draped casket of William Crawmer in the Saddleback Chapel in Tustin. Crawmer was a WWII and Korean War veteran, Pearl Harbor survivor, and Orange County resident. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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William Crawmer's great-grandson, Joey Coykendall, 3, looks over photographs with his mother, Shannon Coykendall, of his great-grandfather's life. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The casket of William Crawmer is carried out of the Saddleback Chapel by family and friends as Shannon Pearson of Long Beach and a member of the Patriot Guard, left, holds one of the flags along the walkway to the hearse. Crawmer was a WWII and Korean War veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor. He was buried at the Riverside National Cemetary.MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

William â€˜Bill' Crawmer

William Crawmer survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to serve in the Korean War as a Marine. He is survived by three siblings, three children, 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Born: Oct. 10, 1919

Died: Jan. 17, 2013

Years in Marine Corps: 20

Wars fought: World War II, Korea

Source: William Crawmer's memoirs

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Master Sgt. William W. Crawmer was waiting in the chow line when the Japanese started dropping bombs and torpedoes and firing bullets on military targets and unsuspecting soldiers and sailors in Pearl Harbor.

"The bullets hit very close to us and were ricocheting all around us in the breakfast line," Crawmer remembered in his memoirs. "We were cussing (them) ... they left one hell of a mess."

Crawmer was 19 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. During his more than 20 years of service, he saw action in both World War II and the Korean War.

During his golden years, he enjoyed catching fish, shooting pool and flying helicopters.

Crawmer, who had recently lived in Santa Ana, died Jan. 17 at the age of 93. His funeral was held in Tustin on Monday.

Crawmer, known as Bill, was born in a small town near Baltimore and grew up working on his uncle's farms. As a teen, he worked on a delivery truck for the Coca-Cola Bottling Co., an all-American job that presaged a long and illustrious career in the Marine Corps.

During World War II, Crawmer learned how to repair military aircraft. After Pearl Harbor, he helped drop leaflets over the islands of Palau, urging the Japanese to surrender.

He also had cushier jobs, such as maintaining a general's speed boat, which he took on at least one joyride.

"That was a real good duty, more fun than a regular job!" Crawmer wrote in his memoirs. "(But) this assignment didn't last long."

After the war, Crawmer was temporarily attached to an aircraft carrier involved with atomic bomb testing in the Bikini Islands. A year later, in 1947, he received his pilot's license.

Crawmer was also an accomplished marksman and athlete. While stationed in La Jolla after World War II, he won a string of medals for his skills as a volleyball player, swimmer and pistol shooter.

After La Jolla, Crawmer was transferred to North Carolina, where he worked with a squadron that flew F-9F jets and spent a lot of time training on aircraft carriers in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1951, when his carrier docked in Rhode Island, Crawmer and four of his fellow officers hitchhiked to Boston to see the Red Sox play the Detroit Tigers.

"Just for the heck of it we decided to cheer for Detroit," Crawmer recounted in his memoirs. "There were a number of young girls sitting behind us that were really harassing us and were beating us on the shoulders for not cheering for Boston."

Detroit won the game.

While stationed in Korea, Crawmer heard about a local orphanage that needed help. "They had no toys or outside swing, in fact, not much of anything!" his memoir reads. Crawmer and his squadron built swings and seesaws for the orphanage. They also came up with $200 that they used to buy the children toys.

During a weeklong furlough to Japan, Crawmer took his Leica IIIf camera and photographed the Japanese countryside, the bombed-out steel mills and the faces of a people he had warred against almost a decade earlier.

Friends and family at Crawmer's service Monday remembered him for his love of guns, pool and fishing. Justin Coykendall, his youngest grandson, said his grandfather taught him to honor women – and how to hunt geese on the Colorado River.

Crawmer was also a man who wanted nothing to do with religion, said pastor Rich Mathesud, who presided over Crawmer's funeral Monday.

"They're all a bunch of hypocrites," Crawmer was prone to say.

"But funerals are not for the dead. They are for the living," Mathesud continued, before asking the congregation to pray for Crawmer.

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